Italian PM assures no disagreement with Germany on direction of EU fiscal policy

FXStreet (Łódź) - European Commission President José Manuel Barroso visited Rome on Friday to meet with Italian PM Matteo Renzi and speak about the goals of Italy's six month presidency of the European Union, which has started on July 1.

One of the questions raised was the possible disagreement with Germany over the direction of EU fiscal policy under the Italian lead, following Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann's comments yesterday that Rome shouldn't call for increased budget flexibility in the EU until it implements all the necessary structural reforms.

"If you are referring to the comments of some German banker, the Bundesbank's job is to ensure respect of its statutes, not to participate in Italy's political debate." Renzi said at the press conference following the meeting.

"Europe belongs to its citizens, not to bankers, either Italian ones or German ones," he added.German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert also confirmed there was no disagreement with Italy on EU deficit rules, while Barrosos that nobody asked for changing them at the last summit.